[HN Gopher] BioWare is laying off 50 employees
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BioWare is laying off 50 employees
Author : cfcfcf
Score : 42 points
Date : 2023-08-23 22:24 UTC (35 minutes ago)
(HTM) web link (blog.bioware.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (blog.bioware.com)
| bitwize wrote:
| BioWare hasn't been BioWare since the founders left. It's just a
| name now, thoroughly digested by the EA sarlacc.
| ljm wrote:
| That is the entire history of gaming though, no? It's the same
| churn you are working with now but you're not making games or
| fun, you're making productivity tools or better graphics or
| whatever, and other people are using that for games.
| izzydata wrote:
| Does any company remain being the same company after ~20-40
| years then?
| chaostheory wrote:
| [delayed]
| SSLy wrote:
| Nintendo is the same as ~ever.
| oneepic wrote:
| It's not the same, but the most recent games aren't total
| disasters IMO. I liked the character story quests in SW: The
| Old Republic, for example -- Jedi Knight's storyline was
| enjoyable. (Plus the game is f2p.)
| chpatrick wrote:
| That's already 13 years old though.
| brucethemoose2 wrote:
| The Old Republic would be a fine game, if it wasn't an MMO.
|
| And I don't mean multiplayer, that is fine. But the hotbar
| mashing combat, the grindy areas filled with standing mooks,
| all the padding and instancing... Bioware Austin did a great
| job changing it to be more KOTOR-like over the years, but at
| its core its a hotbar MMO.
|
| On a seperate note, Andromeda was tragic, still but I still
| liked it.
|
| Anthem was... Just tragic. I am literally the target
| demographic (ME3 coop fans) but was not the least bit
| interested.
| cauthon wrote:
| When was the last BioWare game that was actually excellent? ME2
| in 2010?
| iepathos wrote:
| Dragon Age: Inquisition 2014 was quite good. Not as good as
| origin, but far better than dragon age II.
| shredprez wrote:
| I dunno, I really enjoyed Dragon Age: Inquisition... but it was
| also my first real exposure to BioWare, so take it with a grain
| of salt.
| YawningAngel wrote:
| I had a lot of fun with Inquisition, but the MMOish world
| design and the fact that so much core plot was hived off into
| Trespasser makes it hard to call the game truly excellent.
| pradn wrote:
| You should play Dragon Age: Origins. It's a lot tighter, way
| less filler. I look at these games with a million copy-paste
| quest markers and "points of interest" and just know there's
| little actual substance there.
|
| Or you can play Baldur's Gate 3 like everyone else is now :)
| The DnD systems take a bit of getting used to. The game is an
| excellent story-telling experience, despite that ("despite"
| in my opinion).
| karaterobot wrote:
| Good news, they've got several other, better RPGs :)
| boppo1 wrote:
| Kotor 2
| consilient wrote:
| Kotor 2 was Obsidian, not BioWare.
| oneepic wrote:
| Provided you use mods and community patches, sure. I had to
| replay all of Nar Shaddaa, and kept getting the bug where
| it's skipping all the dialogue. (Also, I felt my ending was
| underwhelming.)
| lucisferre wrote:
| Never been able to get past a game breaking crash bug so
| I've never finished KOTOR2 sadly.
| [deleted]
| LegitShady wrote:
| Deus ex mankind divided was a great game that just feels like
| it ends too early. Apparently square enix is to blame for that.
| danudey wrote:
| Mankind Divided was developed by Eidos Montreal, not Bioware.
| jonny_eh wrote:
| Not a Bioware game. They have no involvement with that
| franchise at all.
| [deleted]
| ljm wrote:
| BioWare had nothing to do with Makind Divided or Human
| Revolution.
| [deleted]
| jonny_eh wrote:
| MDK2
| yamazakiwi wrote:
| They made a 2? I remember getting the demo disk of MDK from
| GamePro Magazine AGES ago.
| SSLy wrote:
| Except the infamously underwhelming ending, ME3 was excellent.
| Fomite wrote:
| This. I got through like 98% of the game thinking "What is
| everyone on about? This game is amazing..."
| kyleyeats wrote:
| Are you kidding? The third title in their famous Baldur's Gate
| series just came out and everyone is talking about it. It's
| being called a triumph of PC gaming and a return to form.
|
| Oh wait. They only made the first two. (The answer to your
| question is _ME1_ )
| bluefirebrand wrote:
| Did Bioware even make either Baldur's Gate game?
|
| I thought they were just the publisher, Black Isle was the
| developer? Do I have that backwards?
|
| Edit: I looked it up and I do have it backwards.
| hiddencost wrote:
| Reread the parent. They were attempting sarcasm.
| Nition wrote:
| You've actually misread bluefirebrand's comment in this
| case.
| bluefirebrand wrote:
| No, I got the joke. I'm fully aware that Baldur's Gate 3
| is not related to Bioware at all.
|
| Also that Larian is basically eating Bioware's lunch
| right now because Bioware has dropped the ball on Dragon
| Age which would occupy a similar space to BG3
|
| It's actually even funnier that Larian is doing it by
| using a franchise that Bioware built 20 years ago.
| [deleted]
| jholman wrote:
| You might also be thinking about Planescape Torment, which
| was developed by BlackIsle with licensed BioWare technology
| (the Baldur's Gate engine). As far as I'm aware, Planescape
| Torment is the closest BioWare has ever gotten to the
| creation of an excellent game.
| quickthrowman wrote:
| Baldur's Gate 2, which is also BioWare's best game.
| yamazakiwi wrote:
| I Love Shadows of Amn but I'd personally rather play Icewind
| Dale :)
| SOLAR_FIELDS wrote:
| > We are doing everything we can to ensure the process is handled
| with empathy, respect, and clear communication.
|
| Zero mention of what these employees are getting in terms of
| severance. Passing mention that there are "other roles in other
| studios". Spends the rest of the announcement talking about what
| it means for the games in development, doesn't even mention the
| people involved again
| HonoredHeadline wrote:
| I don't see how not mentioning how much they are getting in
| severance has anything to do with what they mentioned. You may
| wish to know for curiosities sake but frankly it's none of your
| business.
| Volundr wrote:
| It can be helpful to tell the employees left behind the
| severance structure. Knowing their cohorts are being well
| taken care of can help alleviate the bad vibes for those left
| behind. General public? Yeah I don't see any benefit to
| sharing that info.
| tick_tock_tick wrote:
| Why would you expect that in a blog post targeted at the
| general public? It focuses on what the target audience cares
| about (games).
| [deleted]
| Unfrozen0688 wrote:
| This should be handled by laws, unions and the company, not the
| public
|
| And yes we have a union for all knowledge workers with or
| without degrees
| steno132 wrote:
| I've heard rumors Microsoft was going to buy BioWare from EA, but
| when that fell through, they pursued Activision instead.
|
| It's too bad. With MSFT they wouldn't have had to do this.
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(page generated 2023-08-23 23:00 UTC)